Valve is ending Steam support for 32-bit operating systems (OS) next year.
In an announcement on the Steam website, Valve says that starting January 1, 2026, Steam will only run on 64-bit versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10.
Valve says that only 0.01% of systems that were submitted in the Stead Hardware Survey use the 32-bit OS.
“Existing Steam Client installations will continue to function for the near term on Windows 10 32-bit but will no longer receive updates of any kind including security updates,” Valve says. “Steam Support will be unable to offer users technical support for issues related to the old operating systems, and Steam will be unable to guarantee continued functionality of Steam on the unsupported operating system versions.”
As far as why the move is being made, the Washington-based company says it had to happen due to core Steam features relying on system drivers and other libraries that aren’t supported on 32-bit systems.
For those worried about their games, Valve says that 32-bit games will still run.
Were you still one of the players on a 32-bit system? Let us know down in the comments below, and take the discussion further in the Insider Gaming forums.
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Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
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